Martin Rogan, the Assistant National Director, Mental Health launched two leaflets “Bullying Guidelines for Traveller Parents” produced by the Traveller Health Unit, Eastern Region and “Information Leaflet for Travellers on Temple Street Hospital Self Harm Team” jointly produced by Pavee Point & the Temple Street Hospital.
At the launch, Ronnie Fay, Co-director of Pavee Point Traveller & Roma Centre said, “Travellers have similar mental health challenges in common with other sectors of society and experience the same stigma associated with mental health generally in Irish society, however in addition to this stigma, Travellers have also identified that the exclusion, racism and discrimination they experience as Travellers, further impacts on their mental health and their access to mental health services
The inconsistent provision of mental health services throughout the country, as well as the inappropriate delivery of some services, has also been identified as barriers to good mental health among Travellers.”
Ronnie concluded by saying,
“We all need to prioritise and identify any opportunities to highlight Mental Health issues among Travellers as we can see from the evidence in the AITHS which documented a suicide rate among Travellers that is six times the national average and accounted for 11% of all Traveller deaths. The Study also documented that three times more Travellers identified their mental health was not good when compared to other GMS medical card holders. We take a broad social determinants approach to Traveller health and recognise that Mental Wellbeing also depends on physical and social wellbeing.”
Please see links below to two related articles:
http://www.thejournal.ie/travellers-groups-launch-two-new-leaflets-1007632-Jul2013/